Installation

Note: If you are using GRUB2, kernel parameters are added in /etc/default/grub - GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="..."

Tip: systemd can be installed side-by-side with the regular Arch Linux initscripts, and they can be toggled by adding/removing the init=/bin/systemd kernel parameter.

To take advantage of the systemd way of starting services, you might also want the systemd-arch-units package.

Warning: udev and many other pieces of software expect /usr to be mounted and available at bootup. If your /usr is on a separate partition, you will need to make accommodations to mount it from the initramfs and unmount it from a pivoted root on shutdown. See: freedesktop.org#separate-usr-is-broken

Console and keymap settings

Locale settings

Read man locale.conf for more options

/etc/locale.conf

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=C

Configure kernel modules to load during boot

systemd uses /etc/modules-load.d/ to configure kernel modules to load during boot in a static list. Each configuration file is named in the style of /etc/modules-load.d/<program>.conf. The configuration files should simply contain a list of kernel module names to load, separated by newlines. Empty lines and lines whose first non-whitespace character is # or ; are ignored. Example:

Configure kernel modules blacklist

Describe temporary files

Systemd-tmpfiles uses the configuration files in /etc/tmpfiles.d/ to describe the creation, cleaning and removal of volatile and temporary files and directories which usually reside in directories such as /run or /tmp. Each configuration file is named in the style of /etc/tmpfiles.d/<program>.conf.

Systemd Journal

Since version 38 systemd has an own logging system, the journal.

By default, running a syslog daemon is no longer required. To read the log, use:

# systemd-journalctl

The systemd-journal writes to /run/systemd/journal, meaning logs will poof on reboot. For non-volatile logs, create /var/log/journal/:

# mkdir /var/log/journal/

Journald in conjunction with a classic syslog daemon

Compatibility with classic syslog implementations is provided via a
socket /run/systemd/journal/syslog, to which all messages are forwarded.
To make the syslog daemon work with the journal, it has to bind to this socket instead of /dev/log (official announcement). For syslog-ng change /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf source section to:

By default, journald is configured to read from /proc/kmsg, but this will collide with a syslog implementation doing the same (systemd-devel post). Disable reading /proc/kmsg by systemd-journald in /etc/systemd/systemd-journald.conf:

ImportKernel=no

Enabling bootchart in conjunction with systemd

You can use a version of bootchart to visualize the boot sequence.
Since you are not able to put a second init into the kernel cmdline you won't be able to use any of the standard bootchart setups. However the bootchart2AUR package from AUR comes with an undocumented systemd service. After you've installed bootchart2 do:

Other configurations

For static, wireless or advanced network configuration like bridging you can use netcfg or NetworkManager which both provide systemd service files.

Remote filesystem mounts

If you have NFS mounts listed in /etc/fstab then systemd will attempt to mount them but will typically do so too early (before networking has been configured). To get the timing correct we need to tell systemd explicitly that the mount depends on networking and rpc.statd. To do this, create the following file:

mount-unit-name is the full path to the mountpoint in an escaped format. For example, a mount unit for /usr/local must be named usr-local.mount.

mountpoint is the local mountpoint

server:share specifies the remote filesystem in the same manner as for /etc/fstab

See systemd.unit(5) and systemd.mount(5) for further details.

A similar approach will probably be required for other remote filesystem types such as nfs4 and cifs.

Alternatively, you can mark these entries in /etc/fstab with the x-systemd-automount and x-systemd-device-timeout=# options (see systemd.mount(5)). Make sure that if you also include defaults as a mount option, that you override the implicit auto with noauto. This will cause the device to be mounted on first access, similar to Autofs.

Using systemd

systemctl: used to introspect and control the state of the systemd system and service manager

systemd-cgls: recursively shows the contents of the selected Linux control group hierarchy in a tree

systemadm: a graphical frontend for the systemd system and service manager that allows introspection and control of systemd (avaiable via the systemd-ui-gitAUR package from the AUR).

View the man pages for more details.

Listing running services:

$ systemctl

or:

$ systemctl list-units

The available services or units can be seen in /usr/lib/systemd/system/ and /etc/systemd/system/ (the latter takes precedence).

Activate a service immediately:

# systemctl start <service>

Deactivate a service immediately:

# systemctl stop <service>

Restart a service:

# systemctl restart <service>

Reload the configuration of a service:

# systemctl reload <service>

Show the status of a service, including whether it is running or not:

# systemctl status <service>

Check whether a service is already enabled or not:

# systemctl is-enabled <service>

Enable a service to be started on bootup:

# systemctl enable <service>

Disable a service to not start during bootup:

# systemctl disable <service>

Refer to man systemctl for more details.

Notice that you need to use the full name of a service file. E.g., in order to restart the avahi daemon, issue:

# systemctl restart avahi-daemon.service

Shut down and reboot the system:

# systemctl reboot

Shut down and power-off the system:

# systemctl poweroff

Shut down and halt the system:

# systemctl halt

Runlevels/targets

Runlevels is a legacy concept in systemd. Systemd uses targets which serve a similar purpose as runlevels but act a little different. Each target is named instead of numbered and is intended to serve a specific purpose with the possibility of having multiple ones active at the same time. Some targets are implemented by inheriting all of the services of another target and adding additional services to it. There are systemd targets that mimic the common SystemVinit runlevels so you can still switch targets using the familiar telinit RUNLEVEL command.

Get current runlevel/targets

The following should be used under systemd instead of runlevel:

# systemctl list-units --type=target

Create custom target

The runlevels that are assigned a specific purpose on vanilla Fedora installs; 0, 1, 3, 5, and 6; have a 1:1 mapping with a specific systemd target. Unfortunately, there is no good way to do the same for the user-defined runlevels like 2 and 4. If you make use of those it is suggested that you make a new named systemd target as /etc/systemd/system/<your target> that takes one of the existing runlevels as a base (you can look at /usr/lib/systemd/system/graphical.target as an example), make a directory /etc/systemd/system/<your target>.wants, and then symlink the additional services from /usr/lib/systemd/system/ that you wish to enable.

Targets table

SysV Runlevel

Systemd Target

Notes

0

runlevel0.target, poweroff.target

Halt the system.

1, s, single

runlevel1.target, rescue.target

Single user mode.

2, 4

runlevel2.target, runlevel4.target, multi-user.target

User-defined/Site-specific runlevels. By default, identical to 3.

3

runlevel3.target, multi-user.target

Multi-user, non-graphical. Users can usually login via multiple consoles or via the network.

5

runlevel5.target, graphical.target

Multi-user, graphical. Usually has all the services of runlevel 3 plus a graphical login.

6

runlevel6.target, reboot.target

Reboot

emergency

emergency.target

Emergency shell

Change current runlevels

In systemd runlevels are exposed via "target units". You can change them like this:

# systemctl isolate graphical.target

This will only change the current runlevel, and has no effect on the next boot.

Change default runlevel/target to boot into

The standard target is default.target, which is aliased by default to graphical.target (which roughly corresponds to the old runlevel 5). To change the default target at boot-time, append one of the following kernel parameters to your GRUB kernel line:

systemd.unit=multi-user.target (which roughly corresponds to the old runlevel 3),

systemd.unit=rescue.target (which roughly corresponds to the old runlevel 1).

Alternatively, you may leave the bootloader alone and change default.target. This can be done using systemctl:

# systemctl enable multi-user.target

The effect of this command is outputted by systemctl; a symlink to the new default target is made at /etc/systemd/system/default.target. This works if, and only if:

[Install]
Alias=default.target

is in the target's configuration file. Currently, multi-user.target and graphical.target both have it.

Arch integration

Integration with Arch's classic configuration is accomplished via the initscripts-systemd package. This is an optional package containing unit files and scripts needed to emulate Arch's initscripts, which can be used to ease the transition from sysVinit to systemd.

/etc/inittab is not used at all.

/etc/rc.local and /etc/rc.local.shutdown can be run at startup and shutdown by enabling rc-local.service and rc-local-shutdown.service.

Warning: Usage of this package is not recommended. In particular, arch-load-modules.service and arch-daemons.target are unsupported as a long-term solution and will be removed in the future. When ever possible, use native systemd configuration files instead.

Most people will not need all (if any) of these units, and they can be easily disabled with:

# systemctl disable <unitfile>

The plan is to remove most of the functionality from this package as soon as it is handled elsewhere (mostly in udev/systemd/kernel).

rc.conf

Some variables in /etc/rc.conf are respected by this glue work. For a pure systemd setup it is recommended to use the native systemd configuration files which will take precedence over /etc/rc.conf.

Supported variables:

LOCALE

KEYMAP

CONSOLEFONT

CONSOLEMAP

HOSTNAME

MODULES

DAEMONS: Ordering and blacklisting is respected, if a native systemd service file by the same name as a daemon exists, it will take precedence, this logic can be disabled by systemctl disable arch-daemons.target

rc-local.service / rc-local-shutdown.service

arch-daemons.target

Parses the DAEMONS array in /etc/rc.conf and starts the services. If a native systemd unit exists (by the same name) for a given daemon, this is used; otherwise, the script in /etc/rc.d/ is used to control the unit.

arch-modules-load.service

Helping out

Currently, systemd is mostly at feature parity with Arch's initscripts. However, a lot more testing is needed. If you would like to help out, you can fork the initscripts-systemd or systemd-arch-units git repos and submit pull requests for your additions.

FAQ

Optimization

systemd-analyze

Systemd provides a tool called systemd-analyze that allows you to analyze your boot process so you can see which unit files are causing your boot process to slow down. You can then optimize your system accordingly. You have to install dbus-python to use it.

To see how much time was spent in kernel-/userspace on boot, simply use:

systemd-analyze

To list the started unit files, sorted by the time each of them took to start up:

systemd-analyze blame

You can also create a SVG file which describes your boot process grapically, similiar to Bootchart:

systemd-analyze plot > plot.svg

Shell Shortcuts

Systemd daemon management requires a bit more text entry to accomplish tasks such as start, stopped, enabling, checking status, etc. The following functions can be added one's ~/.bashrc to help streamline interactions with systemd and to improve the overall experience.

Less output

Change verbose to quiet on the kernel line in GRUB. For some systems, particularly those with an SSD, the slow performance of the TTY is actually a bottleneck, and so less output means faster booting.

Early start

One central feature of systemd is dbus and socket activation, this causes services to be started when they are first accessed, and is generally a good thing. However, if you know that a service (like console-kit) will always be started during boot, then the overall boot time might be reduced by starting it as early as possible. This can be achieved (if the service file is set up for it, which in most cases it is) by issuing:

# systemctl enable console-kit-daemon.service

This will cause systemd to start console-kit as soon as possible, without causing races with the socket or dbus activation.

Automount

The default setup will fsck and mount all filesystems before starting most daemons and services. If you have a large /home partition, it might be better to allow services that do not depend on /home to start while /home is being fsck'ed. This can be achieved by adding the following options to the fstab entry of your /home partition:

noauto,x-systemd-automount

This will fsck and mount /home when it is first accessed, and the kernel will buffer all file access to /home until it is ready.

If you have encrypted filesystems with keyfiles, you can also add the noauto parameter to the corresponding entries in /etc/crypttab. systemd will then not open the encrypted device on boot, but instead wait until it is actually accessed and then automatically open it with the specified keyfile before mounting it. This might save a few seconds on boot if you are using an encrypted RAID device for example, because systemd doesn't have to wait for the device to become available. For example:

/etc/crypttab

data /dev/md0 /root/key noauto

Disabling native mount

With v12 or later, you can disable the native mount and fsck facility in /etc/systemd/system.conf:

MountAuto=no
SwapAuto=no

Note: These options are enabled by default.

Readahead

systemd comes with its own readahead implementation, this should in principle improve boot time. However, depending on your kernel version and the type of your hard drive, your mileage may vary (i.e. it might be slower). To enable, do:

Further, you can replace ConsoleKit's functionality with systemd. Be sure to do the above, then build polkit from ABS with systemd enabled, and stuffs like USB automounting will work without consolekit. Compiling dbus from Git is also needed for the DBus at_console policy checks, otherwise you'll have to create /var/run/console/$USER (and delete) manually.